The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Japan Clover

JAPAN CLOVER (Lespedeza striata), a plant indigenous to China and Japan, a few specimens of which were noticed by botanists in the southern states before 1860, but which has since spread with such vigor as to kill out Bermuda grass and other plants considered difficult to extirpate. It has received various names, such as "little wild clover" and "Japan pea," but it is most generally known as Japan clover. It

Japan Clover.

belongs to the hedysareæ, in a different tribe of the family (leguminosæ) from clover. The plant is a perennial, a foot or more high, not very abundantly furnished with trifoliate leaves, in the axils of which are borne single inconspicuous flowers, each of which is followed by a small one-seeded pod. Southern agriculturists differ as to the value of this plant, but as it is liked by stock of all kinds, and will grow in soil too poor to produce any other forage, the weight of testimony is in its favor. It seems to come in almost everywhere without any sowing; and though the old plant is woody and indigestible, the young shoots are readily eaten by cattle.